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Mark Your Calendars: It’s Time for the November FMT

The Frequency Measuring Test (FMT) returns to the airwaves on Wednesday, November 9. As in April, the format will simulate a roundtable QSO in which all of the stations are close to the same frequency, but not exactly on the same frequency. This time, there will be more time -- about five minutes -- between the transmissions from each station. There will be three test signal stations: Connie Marshall, K5CM, in Oklahoma, Charles Collins, W6OQI, in California, and members of the Midwest VHF/UHF Society, W8KSE, in Ohio.

If you have not participated in an FMT before, it doesn’t take a room full of test equipment to have fun and make surprisingly accurate measurements. You can read all of the QST articles about the exercises on the ARRL FMT web page. More information on frequency measuring techniques and exercises can be found on Marshall’s website.

Here’s how the roundtable format works: K5CM will lead off with a call-up that lasts for three minutes. The call-up is then followed by a two-minute key-down period and an end announcement. The frequency is then turned over to W8KSE who repeats the process before handing it off to W6OQI. Your job is to measure and report the frequencies of all the stations.

The test will begin on 40 meters near 7.055 MHz at 10:15 PM (0315 UTC on the morning of November 10.) Once the roundtable is completed on 40 meters, the test will then move to 80 meters near 3.579 MHz beginning at 10:45 PM. The 80 meter stations will be K5CM, W8KSE and W6OQI, in that order. All stations will be within ~200 hertz of the initial frequency for K5CM. The April results showed the schedule to be a good one for all locations.